Generally, to get 290-300 in the optional, is it possible to do so if you haven't been able to finish either optional paper? Put it another way, among the candidates who make the list, does everyone finish the optional papers or do they end up leaving some questions? If so, roughly how many marks do they leave unattempted?
Just a general query, not specific to any optional. But wondering about subjects like PubAd, PSIR, Socio etc (ie non-technical subjects like Maths or even high scoring humanities subjects like Anthro).
@DijkstraTo be honest, not that relevant. In reality, there are enough posts to go around for pretty much everyone. Like you said, promotions too happen in batches.
But there are some situations where promotions might be affected: Say, Govt is promoting officers of 1997 IRS batch. There are 70 slots to be filled in that promotion cycle, so merely 1997 batch will not be enough. Probably, 1998 batch will also be promoted at the same time. Finally, say there are 6 more slots. For this, they will dip into 1999 batch. Now, it will be the top 6 officers (inter-se seniority within 1999 batch). Ranks 7 to the rest of the 1999 batch will only be promoted in the next cycle.
So, yes. Inter-se seniority matters. But not for everyone or in all cases. Most officers do not even care to see where they are in the inter-se seniority. For instance, IPS officers tend to chase postings (e.g. Mumbai Police DCP) rather than be worried if their batchmate is promoted in rank ahead of him (the latter higher ranked batchmate might end up serving in Nagpur).
Don't mean to speak badly of any service/post. Just a practical answer from what I've seen/observed/heard.
@abc123, replying to (3): any source for increase in retirement age? Even in that case, pension funding shouldn't be a problem, right? Since 2004, govt has completely moved to the contribution-based NPS rather than lump-sum model earlier.
